^'^2 PIGMY adder's TONaUE. 



This curious little fern is so connected with the commoner 

 species — Ophioglossum vulgatum — by means of a series of 

 plants, intermediate in size, and in the configuration of the 

 barren portion of the frond, that it is extremely difficult to de- 

 termine to which species the recorded habitats refer : whether 

 such intermediate plants really constitute intermediate species, 

 and whether or no they serve to unite the extremes in either 

 direction, and thus prove that vulgatum and lusitanicum are 

 nothing more than extreme states of a single species, I will not 

 attempt to decide. Such intermediate plants exist chiefly in 

 the Atlantic islands : Mr. Watson has such from San Miguel, 

 Madeira, &c. ; and Dr. Hooker has kindly presented me with 

 others from New Zealand, which I am unable to separate with 

 confidence either from vulgatum or from lusitanicum. It is 

 abundant in some parts of Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, and 

 Greece ; it occurs in several islands of the Mediterranean ; and 

 through the kindness of my lamented friend. Col. Bory de St. 

 Vincent, I possess specimens from Algeria. Mr. Watson, who 

 has most kindly given me copies of his labels, has specimens 

 of the true lusitanicum from San Miguel and Teneriffe. 



For its discovery in the British Isles, we are indebted to Mr. 

 George Wolsey, who kindly sent me the following information 

 for publication in the ' Phytologist.' He " found it in some 

 abundance amidst short and very level herbage sloping towards 

 the South, on the summit of rocks, not far from Petit Bot Bay, 

 on the south coast of the Island of Guernsey. On this elevated 

 down are a few scattered and stunted furze-bushes, and around 

 these the grass is, as usual, somewhat longer, and here the little 

 adder's tongue is not quite so minute as on the level turf, where 

 it scarcely attains an inch in height. It grows in company 

 with Trichonema Columnas and Scilla autumnalis, and on the 

 17th of January, 1824, was in full fruit. The very early fruc- 

 tification, and the minute size of this species, while it at once 

 indicates the cause of its having so long escaped unobserved in 

 Guernsey, suggests the idea that it may also have been over- 

 looked in similar situations in the south-western counties of 

 England and Ireland." — Phytol. v. 81. I am much indebted 



